[Farm93]

To be clear, I am talking about high school class recruiting rankings, not record.  Shaw's class of 2022, on the heels of a 3-9 season, was 19th nationally and second in the Pac-12.  Except for the weird small classes that we periodically had, Shaw was pretty much always in the top half of the conference; the issues were about recruiting imbalances, failures to retain players (and not being able to replace them with incoming transfers) and failure to develop them. But historically our recruiting ranking has been fine, and with USC and UCLA out of conference starting in 2024, it is not unreasonable for us to duke it out with Washington for the second most desirable destination in the conference behind Oregon.  Top 5 most of the time and and top 3 much of the time is attainable.

BC

When it comes to HS recruiting I sure hope we are in the top 3 every year in the new Pac-10.

Stanford will likely always need relatively large incoming classes to offset transfer losses, so now that the transfer portal is dominating the scene I hope Stanford will be top 3 in the new Pac-10 since those ratings have a quantity element to them.

That noted, I am not sure most future Stanford head coaches will be able to enjoy Coach Shaw levels of recruiting success.   Selling the Stanford 40-year story just seems like something parents would find more credible if it was delivered by a Stanford alum with success after his playing years in college football. 

Also the new world of NIL, which wasn't really in force during most of Shaw's tenure, seems to be driving a lot of top recruits to the most lucrative NIL rather than a 4 v 40 decision.

[Farm93]

To be clear, I am talking about high school class recruiting rankings, not record.  Shaw's class of 2022, on the heels of a 3-9 season, was 19th nationally and second in the Pac-12.  Except for the weird small classes that we periodically had, Shaw was pretty much always in the top half of the conference; the issues were about recruiting imbalances, failures to retain players (and not being able to replace them with incoming transfers) and failure to develop them. But historically our recruiting ranking has been fine, and with USC and UCLA out of conference starting in 2024, it is not unreasonable for us to duke it out with Washington for the second most desirable destination in the conference behind Oregon.  Top 5 most of the time and and top 3 much of the time is attainable.

BC

When it comes to HS recruiting I sure hope we are in the top 3 every year in the new Pac-10.

Stanford will likely always need relatively large incoming classes to offset transfer losses, so now that the transfer portal is dominating the scene I hope Stanford will be top 3 in the new Pac-10 since those ratings have a quantity element to them.

That noted, I am not sure most future Stanford head coaches will be able to enjoy Coach Shaw levels of recruiting success.   Selling the Stanford 40-year story just seems like something parents would find more credible if it was delivered by a Stanford alum with success after his playing years in college football. 

Also the new world of NIL, which wasn't really in force during most of Shaw's tenure, seems to be driving a lot of top recruits to the most lucrative NIL rather than a 4 v 40 decision.